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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Luckily for me the evening maintenance man knew exactly what he was doing. When I told him the current issues with the arena, he told me what to do before I could get the words out of my mouth. We were on the same page and that meant it was more likely to get the job done and done right. I was looking forward to getting this problem solved once and for all.

Again I had the paddock announcer let the exhibitors know the ring would be closed down a bit earlier for maintenance before the start of the evening session. That way if anyone really needed to get into the arena to school they'd know it had to be done immediately instead of waiting until the last minute before the evening session was to start.

There didn't seem to be any rush up to the ring. I was hoping that wasn't because people hadn't heard this announcement but then I've noticed that the Morgan horse trainers don't seem to spend the amount of time schooling before sessions like the Arabian trainers do. If this had been an Arabian horse show, the trainers would have been scrambling to make sure they got their schooling time.Maybe that goes back to the breed thing and Arabian horses having keener senses that cause them to react to things other breeds of horses don't seem to notice.

Then on the other side of that coin I see the Morgan horses seem to to hotter in the ring than the Arabians. Maybe that's because a lot of those horses are not schooled before each session in which they have a class like the Arabians so they haven't had the chance to "see" what might be or not be there.

It's always interesting to me to see what the differences are between the different breed shows and to wonder what might cause them. I sure it's not all about the breeds of horses themselves. People and their personalities must play a part as well.

There were no complaints about this early close but then I suspect that's because there's a lot of "dirt" to school on at this facility. Since the weather had dried out, the outdoor arena was good to go and I'd had it unlocked to take up some of the slack caused by my closing the arena down early. When I looked outside, I did see a few horses out there schooling in the sun.

I monitored the work in the arena making sure it wasn't going to take longer than the time allowed. I pride myself in running a tight ship with classes starting on time. There's nothing that stresses exhibitors out more than an unpredictable schedule.

At one point it looked like we were really pushing the limits getting this kind of work done between sessions. It was a good thing the man on the tractor knew exactly what he was doing. The judge and her ring steward were standing at the gate ready to walk in as the tractor made its last pass around the arena.

The evening session sailed along pretty well. A couple of times I checked at the gate, it seemed like exhibitors were lagging back instead of coming up when called. Other than that this judge seemed to be moving the classes through pretty well. We were finished with the evening session before it was dark.

I made a walk through the barns while the show secretary wrapped things up in the office. Even though this show has hired night security to do checks of the barns every two hours, I like to know that things are as they should be before I leave for the night.

The last place I stopped was to check my horse. I gave him his grain and some good scratches and told him about my plans for him before leaving for the night.

Earlier that day I had offered to let the paddock announcer's daughter ride Legs. The teenager had been lamenting about not having a horse to ride so I'd offered up Legs. My thoughts had been we'd get it done at the lunch break. Mom hadn't mentioned it to her daughter because she wanted to be sure that I was serious. Then I was hoping we'd get it done at the dinner break but my work with the footing didn't leave us enough time for then either. Now I was telling Legs it was going to have to wait until Saturday.

6 comments:

Hi Mikael, as you know I am still new to your blog, I am acutally new to blogs of any kind. Yours is the only blog I read, and I have only just recently learnt how to post comments. Well tonight (will it is tonight here in Australia!) I have just discovered that I have a profile on Blogger and 5 people have visited it, and it was blank! So I have now filled in some information on myself, and I appologise to everyone, I wasnt deliberately being secretive, I just didn't know it was there! I feel like I am getting to know you so well, and that you are like a best friend, but then I realise you don't know anything about me, so I have filled in some information so you can know a bit about me if you want to.

I am constantly amazed at how much you manage to do, and how much work you take on. You are truly an inspiration!

It seems to me (and I'm a nobody in the Morgan world), that Morgans are desired to be more animated in their classes. Many have alot more front end action, even the western pleasure horses. I wonder if that has to do with the not warming up thing? I know that I warm up like crazy because my horse is a little bronco when he has too much energy, but that's just me. Did you notice alot of horses with more "action" than the typical Arabian?

Anyway, I'm excited to hear about the rest of the show, I love that you post about the Morgan shows!!

I like watching different breeds like that too observing a large group of them and their temperament in-particular - and you're right you will notice somethings, draw conclusions then be like "well...no...look at the Morgans...." and be back at the drawing board.

Seems you me you are a watcher too. I am not overtly but whenever I can I like to be the silent observer - a people and nature watcher when given the chance to do so politely. Some things are just so fascinating.

Glad you go the arena taken care of. I know barrel racing is not a great comparison but if they don't rack after every couple of girls the ruts around the barrels are just terrible and detract from everyone's time. So I'm glad everything is good now. :)

RR~ How do you get it all done?! Have had company for 9 days, Maggie was down during this time and new blog make over and I feel wiped out!!! Then I read your blog and I have to take to my bed!!!I too love Morgans, but I am holding out for an Arabian!Thanks to you!(final installment made and pixie dust is back!)